Ryan Kennedy's Column

Edmonton would be wise to pay close attention to how the Blackhawks were built as each club started the same way.
CHICAGO – When the dynasty Edmonton Oilers of the 1980s were still a team without a Stanley Cup, they had their famous showdown with the New York Islanders in the 1983 final.

It's been the greenhorns who've taken Chicago from a good to great team. That was on full display Sunday night in a 1-0 win over Columbus.
CHICAGO - Now riding an 18-game point streak to begin the season, the record-breaking Chicago Blackhawks are finding ways to win, even on nights where they're not at their sharpest.

Valery Nichushkin is making waves near the top of this NHL draft class, but will his nationality come into play?
Thanks to his play at the Five Nations tournament in Sweden, Russian left winger Valery Nichushkin has become all the rage in the prospect world this week.

When Scott Howson started as Blue Jackets GM he inherited a messy team and while he got them to the playoffs, he couldn't keep them there.
The Scott Howson era is finished in Columbus and nay, there was never a dull moment. As much as he was pilloried by pundits and the general public, this is still the only GM in team history to take the franchise to the playoffs.

He's not the most important, nor is he the best, but no player has more influence on the division than Milan Lucic.
The most influential player in the Northeast Division is Boston Bruins left winger Milan Lucic. Montreal’s Carey Price may be more important to his team and the Bruins’ Zdeno Chara may be the best player, but no other skater has changed the landscape like ‘Looch.

If the NHL adds two more teams as Paul Kelly suggested they're considering, the talent pool would have to expand as well.
As Markham, Ont., flirts with the idea of building an NHL-capable arena, an interesting storyline has emerged alongside the main attraction.

With so many games packed in to a condensed schedule, teams with strong legs and quick play will excel.
In a shortened season, everything is magnified. That means it’s never too early to look for trends and even if the play was a little sloppy in the first days of the 2013 season, the maxim “speed kills” certainly made itself known.

THN's prospect guru ranks the top 30 players available in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft.
A fantastic turn at the World Junior Championship has scouts and scouting services buzzing about Portland Winterhawks defenseman Seth Jones.

Our own Ryan Kennedy was in Ufa for the medal round of this year's junior tournament and offers his overall take on the event.
With another World Junior Championship in the can, it's time to look at some of the storylines that emerged from Ufa and how they might impact the future, when the tourney shifts to Malmo, Sweden for the 2014 instalment.

Ryan Kennedy puts together a "Field of Dreams" type game, including current and former NHLers, plus a few guys who never got their shot. Whimsy time. The NHL has no present - just a future and a past. I cover the future, in the form of prospects, a lot, but today I want to talk about the past.

The Ottawa Senators decided to keep Zibanejad in the AHL over the holidays instead of sending him to the WJC. Free Z-Bad. Sounds like a pretty good T-shirt, eh? After finding out the Ottawa Senators would not be releasing 2012 world juniors hero Mika Zibanejad for an encore performance in Russia, Swedish national coach Roger Ronnberg may have wanted to buy that gear in bulk.

The sanctions imposed on the Portland Winterhawks leave major junior in a place where it has to ask tough questions of itself. Some big news came out of the University of Denver Tuesday night, as freshman Quentin Shore was considering leaving the Pioneers and joining the Western League’s Portland Winterhawks.